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- . $ HERE AND THERE ON THE TURF I Announcement has been made that the La-tonia course is to be built over. This racing strip has, on occasions, been unreasonably hard for the galloping- horse and there is good reason for its reconstruction. There is something more to be desired than fast footing for the galloping of horses and when that surface is obtained at the expense of cushion it comes at a heavy cost. Latonia, on occasions, has been an exceedingly fast track, but at the same time its lack of cushion was calculated to work a great harm to horses with injuries to feet and tendons. It requires a particular skill to successfully contract a racing strip, for the ideal racing ground must combine a firm base with a resiliency that will prevent the undue pounding and jar on the galloping horse. The return of racing to the Tanforan course is creating considerable interest among the sportsmen of California to whom a rehabilitation of the turf would mean big things. All of the preparatory work has about been completed for the opening of the season on April 5. Members of the Pacific Coast Breeders Association, who made the return of racing possible, will be the best patrons of the sport in the horses they will show. Various of these breeders have been preparing their horses at their- own training grounds and the stall applications that have been made suggest there will be an abundance of fit horses on hand for the opening. The opening date is happily chosen to attract many of the stables that have been campaigning at Agua Caliente. for that meeting comes to a conclusion with the racing of i next Sunday. That will afford the trainers comfortable time to move over to Tanforan and have their horses comfortably housed before the opening. The method of wagering to be employed at Tanforan, and which has been declared as entirely within the law by the courts, seemed a bit complicated in most of the published descriptions of the plan, but it is in no sense complicated in operation and it will doubtless be entirely satisfactory to the public. Shorn of all its angles to keep the operation within the law, it is after the idea of a pool just as is the straight out pari-mutuel plan, or the stock certificate method that is used at the St. Johns meeting in Florida. The method of each is different merely in operation, but each is just as close to the pari-mutuel system as is possible within the existing laws. There is still a hope that should this meeting at Tanforan be properly - received that it may do more than any that have gone before to hring about a California enactment that would again firmly establish the turf on the Pacific coast. Reports on the training progress of Dedicate would suggest that he belongs right up among the most potential of the candidates for the Kentucky Derby. The good son of Dodge and On Time, a daughter of High Time, went slightly amiss before he completely finished out his juvenile campaign, but before his retirement he accomplished - enough to be pronounced by many good judges as the colt of the year. He has been progressing towards the Derby in a satisfactory manner and he still enjoys every opportunity to race his way to a real importance. He will not have to worry about ither Whiclione or Boojum at least through his spring campaign, but his real admirers have an abiding belief that he is master of both of the Whitney colts. Monday, March 31, was one day of the year when there was no racing on this continent. In other seasons it has been usual for the Tijuana racing to lap over the early spring racing in Maryland, but Sunday was the last day of the Agua Caliente season and Bowie, the first of the early spring meetings, began Tuesday. Each year there is little difference between the winter and spring racing in the matter of the horses engaged. Time was when the horses that raced through the winter would have to look for their profitable employment at the small, or as they were known, the "bush" meetings. They had no chance against the horses that were brought out of winter retirement for what was offered at the best of the spring meetings. It was altogether unusual and remarkable, when a winter campaigner carried on successfully at the end of one of these sessions. There were some few exceptions, of course, and May Hempstead is one that is called to mind at this time. But it was so unusual that her accomplishments will always be remembered. Of course, as the quality of the winter performers improved there came Black Gold, to follow up a victory in the Louisiana Derby by winning the Kentucky Derby. There was Bagenbaggage that also won the Louisiana Derby and followed it up by being second to his stablemate, Bubbling Over, in the Kentucky Derby and winner of the Latonia Derby. But they are of comparatively recent date and each year the winter horses have had a greater racing importance. In the days when the Washington Jockey Club began the spring season in the East, at the old Benning course, and when Cumberland Park, at Nashville, and Montgomery Park, at Memphis, were the first spring opportunities in the Middle West, it was not so easy for the winter campaigners. They ran into an altogether new quality and were forced to wait for "bush" chances to keep them occupied until the opening of the next winter season. All of this tells the tale of the steadily increasing importance of the winter sport. It tells of the healthy growth of racing and it is always a cheering sign for the times when they become fewer and fewer chances for. the thoroughbreds that are well nigh worthless. As Mr. Widener said at a Miami luncheon during the winter: "There are no more ,500 race horses, and there is no place on any first class race course for horses that are so valued." It is an excellent idea of the winter racing associations to take for their officials men of experience who serve through the summer months in one or other of the racing sections. Ill this fashion they are in a better - position to have their rulings respected and they have a better opportunity to make -punishments lasting. The man who has scant respect for the rules always has a wholesome dread of the punishment that comes for a violation, but when it is only a winter punishment that is J feared it inspires nothing like the fear that would come when it might be continued at the later meetings. At the Miami track. New York, Kentucky and Ohio were represented in the stewards stand. At New Orleans Maryland had a place in the stand with the appointment of George Brown, Jr., to serve with Martin Nathansdn and the last named is a valued official in Illinois. In Cuba C. J. Fitzgerald and W. H. Shelley were in the stand. They fill official positions in Illinois and Kentucky. Agua Caliente racing was presided over in the stewards stand by Francis Nelson, one of the most respected of Canadian officials, as well as Jack Campbell, who has brilliantly represented various racing sections. Time was when there was less care exercised in the appointment of the winter officials and there was less respect paid the rulings. Now to be punished at a winter race course is equally as serious as to be punished at any course during the summer racing season. There appears to be an excellent chance for two previous winners of the Dixie Handicap to meet in its renewal at the old Pimlico course April 28. These are It. M. Eastmans Mike Hall, winner in 1928, and the Wheatley Stables Diavolo, which- was winner last year. Both of these are being pointed for the running and each has a quality to make that training of vast interest. Mike Hall is a six-year-old unsexed son of Hourless and Clpnakilty Catmint and he were bred by Mr. Eastman. This old fellow had so thoroughly established himself as a stayer in this country that he was sent abroad last fall to have a try for the Cesarewitch, as well as some of the other distance prizes of the British turf. His invasion was not a success, but he had shown enough before being sent abroad to indicate that he had not shown at his best over there on the English courses. He was brought out of retirement evidently none the worse for his journey overseas and his training suggests that he will be ready for the Dixie. Diayolo is a five-year-old son of Whisk Broom II. Vexatious, a daughter of Peter Pan. He was developed and trained by James Fitzsimmons and last year he quite thoroughly established himself as the best stayer in training. Diavolo has been taking his early spring exercises at Aqueduct and ho has shown progress until miles are a part of his galloping. Barring a setback in his preparation he will surely be ready for the question on April 28 and it is probable he Avill be afforded a racing chance before the big objective falls due. When Mike Hall was winner of the 192S Dixie he carried 110 pounds and he led home the ill-fated Scapa Flow, which carried 120 pounds and Sir Harry, the sturdy campaigner .for the Seagram Stable, carrying 119 pounds. Diavolo carried 112 pounds in his victory and he led home Victorian, carrying 122 pounds and old Display, under 121 pounds. This year Diavolo has been jumped to the top of the handicap with an impost of 128 pounds, while handicapper Frank J. Bryan has required that Mike Hall take up 122 pounds. Victorian, recent winner of the Agua Caliente Handicap was handicapped at 123 pounds, but his Mexican victory carried with it a five pound penalty, that brings his weight up to that of Diavolo. 12S pounds; Toro at 126 and Jack High at 123 pounds. These are the only ones from which Mike Hall receives weight. At this date there is a prospect that the Dixie renewal will be one of its most notable runnings.
